JPH0895827A - Microprogram verification method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] It is an object of the present invention to provide a microprogram verification method that is not affected by changes in computer models or microprogram specifications, and does not require human intervention. [Configuration] Microinstruction definition information necessary for verification is automatically extracted from the microinstruction specification of a microprogram to be verified described by the microinstruction specification description language specification, and verification is performed by the extracted definition information. .

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for verifying a microprogram, and more particularly to a method for verifying a microprogram suitable for performing source level verification for violation of specification restrictions of the microprogram.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional verification method of a microprogram, there is a method of verifying a microprogram at a source level as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 02-083742.

The definition of the microprogram to be verified and the rules for restricting the use of microinstructions necessary for verification use the information described in the microinstruction specifications by hand and analyzing the information in a specific format and symbol. Also, a lot of information such as a description format of a micro program source, a special function and its operation are fixedly incorporated in the processing.

[0004]

In the conventional method, the following problems are pointed out.

(1) The model of the computer is specified.

(2) If the description format of the microprogram to be verified, etc. is changed in the part incorporated in the processing, a verification method or a countermeasure for the device is required, which hinders quick verification. (3) By manually extracting the definition of microinstruction specifications, restriction rules, and the like, there is room for errors such as omission of detection and description errors, and there is a possibility that the verification accuracy will decrease.

(4) The number of man-hours required for preparation is large by manually extracting the definition of microinstruction specifications and restriction rules.

(5) Manual intervention is required every time a change or an addition is made to the definition of microinstruction specifications or restriction rules.

The above problems can be said to be fatal especially for verification of microprograms in the development process.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a microprogram verification method that is not affected by changes in the computer model or microprogram specifications, and does not require human intervention. With the goal.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned object, a microprogram verification method according to the present invention provides definition information of a microprogram source to be verified and information necessary for verification such as restriction rules in specifications. Automatically extracted from microinstruction specifications without built-in verification processing device
By collecting and verifying the generated information, it is possible to realize general-purpose verification that is not affected by changes in the model or specifications of the computer.

To that end, the microinstruction field,
Function definition, definition of microprogram source description format, definition of group of similar functions,
Various definition information such as the definition of a function having a special operation or role, and micro-instruction use restriction rules are automatically extracted from the description of the micro instruction specification of the micro program to be verified.

Further, in order to realize the automatic extraction of the definition information, the specification of the microinstruction description language defining the description format of the microinstruction specification is defined in detail, and the microinstruction described based on this definition. Use the specifications.

The following means are provided for extracting the restriction rule in the specification of the micro instruction.

A means for editing based on the structure of microinstruction fields and functions in consideration of processing efficiency at the time of performing verification. There are a plurality of descriptions in the microinstruction specifications, but they are integrated if they agree on the content. Means for organically editing, etc.-Means for pointing out rules that cause inconsistencies during rule editing and rules for undefined instructions not included in the definition of the above-mentioned fields and functions, and excluding them from the verification conditions

[0016]

The present invention is characterized in that information necessary for verification such as various definitions of micro program source to be verified and restriction rules is automatically extracted from the microinstruction specifications and used to generate information. It is possible to realize general-purpose verification that is not affected by changes in the model or specifications of the computer without incorporating the above logic in the verification processing device.

Further, by defining the specification of the microinstruction specification description language that defines the description method of the microinstruction specification and describing the microinstruction specification on the basis of this definition, the above-mentioned verification conditions etc. Automatic extraction can be realized.

By implementing such an automatic extraction method, there is no room for human intervention, so that the reliability of the information as the verification condition is improved and the latest verification condition can be maintained at all times, and the verification accuracy can be improved. Can be improved.

In extracting the micro-instruction use restriction rule, sorting is performed based on the structure of the field or function of the micro-instruction, or although there are a plurality of micro-instruction specifications in the description of the micro-instruction specification, the agreement rule of the consent technique is integrated. By having a means for organically editing, it is possible to speed up the restriction rule determination processing and improve the verification efficiency.

Further, there must be a means for pointing out a rule that causes a contradiction when editing these rules and a rule for an undefined instruction that is not included in the definition of the above-mentioned field or function, and exclude it from the verification conditions. so,
It is possible to improve the reliability of the verification result and also reduce the determination processing time for invalid rules.

[0021]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

The present invention is characterized by means for providing information necessary for verification, and the verification processing part for determining the restriction rule using such information uses a conventional method or an equivalent verification method. Since it does not matter, no specific explanation will be given other than the overall schematic diagram of the system.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the parts related to the present invention.
It is a schematic diagram of the entire microprogram verification system.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a microinstruction specification description language specification that defines a description language of the microinstruction specification. Reference numeral 2 is a file that stores microinstruction specifications described in accordance with the microinstruction specification description language specification 1.

A microinstruction specification compiling unit 3 automatically extracts various definition information of the microprogram (details will be described with reference to FIG. 2) from the microinstruction specifications.

Reference numeral 5 is microinstruction specification description violation information, which is pointed out by the microinstruction specification compiling unit 3 and points out illegal description or contents, and 6 is microinstruction specification description violation information 5
Feedback to the microinstruction specification in.

Reference numeral 7 is a microprogram source to be verified.

Reference numeral 8 is a verification execution unit.

The micro instruction specification restriction rule violation information 9 is the execution result, the micro program source description format violation information 10 is the execution result, and the micro instruction specification restriction rule violation information 9 and the micro program source description format violation information 10 are micro. Feedback to program source 7 is shown.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the microinstruction specification compiling unit 3 of FIG.

The microinstruction specification compiling unit 3 is roughly divided into 30 data reading and checking units, and 3
It is composed of an editing unit 1 and an error reporting unit 33 and an output unit 32. The outline will be described.
Read and analyze and check the contents.

Next, the editing unit 31 edits the read information into a format which is input to the verification unit, and outputs it at the output unit 32.

In this process, if there is a description that violates the definition of the microinstruction specification description language specification 1, the error reporting unit 33 outputs a message indicating the violation content and location as the microinstruction specification description violation information 5. Hereinafter, the flow of processing of the data reading / checking unit 30 and the editing unit 31 will be sequentially described.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing an outline in the read and check unit 30 when the data is the definition information of the microinstruction.

The microinstruction is composed of individual instructions called functions, which belong to the field assigned for each function. In FIG. 3 exemplifying the contents of the microinstruction specification to be read, the operation, the restriction rule, etc. are described for the function A1 of the field A. All of these are described in the format defined in the microinstruction specification description language specification 1, and the data read according to the microinstruction specification description language specification 1 is analyzed, and various information on the microinstruction specification is extracted.

An example will be described below with reference to the data shown in FIG.

Data is read from the microinstruction specification 2 (301), and first, the head of the data block for each function is recognized by the "Function" 201 (302).

Recognize'FunctionA1'202 as a function name and'FieldA'203 as a field name (303).

The "-grp" 204 is a key of option information related to the function defined in the microinstruction specification description language specification.
It is recognized that AA'205 is the name of the group to which "FunctionA1" belongs (304). This option key may be described in any number as long as it is of a different type.

Next, the data item in the function is determined.

Explaining the part within the dotted line frame in FIG.
After the appearance of the data of ule {', the contents are recognized as rule information until ‘}’ (306), and the rule is read and the description format is checked. Furthermore, the data recognized as a rule is analyzed for each clause according to the definition for the rule description, and the contents are recognized according to the rule type as shown in FIG. 6. For example, NOT is changed to a prohibit code '1'. For example, the code is replaced with a corresponding code or a fixed format (307).

Others, "Operation" 207
Operation information recognition and information extraction (3
08) and (309) are executed, and data extraction processing in the function is executed. The above is repeated until the data of the definition information of the micro instruction is completed. However, if the description format or content is incorrect in the item determination, the error information is passed to the error reporting unit (33), and this processing unit ends.

Similarly, for the information in the microprogram source description format in FIG. 3, "M" indicating the beginning of the data is displayed.
Recognize items by PSRC '.

Here, the rule information will be described, and an example of the editing unit 31 that processes the information recognized and read by the data read / check unit 30 will be described using the rule information.

Reference numeral 208 is restriction rule information on the specification of microinstructions. The restriction rule is a restriction on use such as a mutual relationship between a key function and a target function, an appearance condition of the function, and the like.
Examples of some rules will be specifically described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 5, reference numeral 501 is an example of a restriction rule on the microinstruction specification, and 502 is a flow chart showing one step of the microprogram source in one box and a path connection shown by a line.

The restriction rule 5 in the microinstruction specifications
Each rule of 01 is written in the format defined in the microinstruction specification description language specification on the microinstruction specification 2.

The rule of the restriction rule 501 on the microinstruction specification is C05 in the flow chart diagram 502.
There is a key function'XX 'in the box of
It can be said that it is protected because the target function “ZZ” that needs to be specified is 01.

Within 3 cycles of the rule (1) means that the key function'YY
From A03 box with ', to A04 box. In this case as well, it can be said that this rule is observed because the target function'ZZ 'whose specification is prohibited is not within the range.

In the rule of (5), designation in the same box is restricted. In the box of B05 in which the key function'AA 'is present in the flow chart diagram 502, the target function'BB whose designation is prohibited is'BB.
It can be said that this rule is observed because there is no '.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the restriction rule extracted from the micro instruction specification.

In FIG. 6, the field 601 to which the function to be a key belongs is placed at the top of the field 601 to which the function to be a key belongs in order to easily refer to the rule when a microinstruction to be a key appears at the time of verification. A restriction rule 603 is set for each function 602.

At the time of extraction of the restriction rule, although there are plural in the description of the micro instruction specification, the consent restriction rules are integrated. FIG. 7 shows an example of integration.

In FIG. 7, as is clear from the mutual relation 701, the two rules shown by the rules 702 and 703 are written for each key function, so the description is different, but the content shows the same restriction. Is.

In this embodiment, the description of the rule 703 is integrated with the rule 702, which is convenient in terms of verification processing and is a description that captures the flow of the microprogram in the forward direction.

Rules 704 to 706 are
In each case, the key functions belong to the same group. These are replaced with the rule 707 that uses the group name as a key according to the group definition of the function extracted by the data read / check unit 30.
The amount of information passed to the verification unit is reduced.

When the above-mentioned restriction rule is edited, the rule, function, etc., in which the contradiction occurs, are defined in the micro instruction definition 402
If there is a description such as a rule that violates or is not defined, those are excluded, and a pointing message is created and output as the micro instruction specification description violation information 5.

As for information other than the rules, the data extracted by the data read / check unit is edited in each output format. The outline of each role and data structure is briefly described below.

Microprogram source description format information 4
01 is a verification unit based on the information that defines the contents of one step of the micro program source in the order of appearance, the delimiter of each element of data, the definition of the maximum data width, the invalid part, etc. It provides information that can be implemented.

Reference numeral 402 is microinstruction definition information that defines the fields of microinstructions and the structure of functions and the like. The function information is classified / sorted in field units so that this information can be easily referred to during verification. In addition, a unique code is given to the function for the purpose of compressing the amount of data and realizing a high-speed compare, and also has information on the total number of fields and the number of functions under the field.

Reference numeral 404 is special function information that defines a function that performs a special role or operation.

When performing static verification in the verification unit, such as the definition of the name of the function that controls the cycle wait and the number of its waits, and the function that makes the unconditional branch last, it is more superficial than on the microprogram source. Is a definition for obtaining information about operations that cannot be collected.

Although the specific description has been given above, the feature of the present invention is that all the information such as the definition of the microprogram necessary for the verification is obtained from the microinstruction specifications. Not limited to the scope of the embodiment,
For example, the dynamic verification can be performed using information regarding the operation of the microprogram, such as the register / latch information of 405 and the operation information of 406.

[0064]

As described above, according to the microprogram verification method of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) It is possible to realize general-purpose verification regardless of the model or version to be verified.

(2) The number of preparation steps for verification can be greatly reduced.

(3) By eliminating manual intervention in the verification condition setting step, it is possible to eliminate the omission of description and error in the definition of various definitions and restriction rules as verification conditions, and to improve the verification accuracy.

(4) The verification under the latest verification conditions can always be maintained, and high-quality verification can be realized.

(5) By speeding up the verification process by editing and optimizing the restriction rule serving as the judgment criterion during verification.

(6) By pointing out the fraudulence of the restriction rule which is the judgment criterion at the time of verification, it is possible to prevent erroneous pointing at the time of verification and improve the reliability of the verification result.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic diagram of a microprogram verification system.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a microinstruction specification compiling unit.

FIG. 3 is an example of micro instruction specification description.

FIG. 4 is a data read / check unit process of microinstruction specifications.

FIG. 5 is a restriction rule based on microinstruction specifications.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a restriction rule based on microinstruction specifications.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of integration processing of restriction rules.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Microinstruction specification description language specification 2 Microinstruction specification 3 Microinstruction specification compilation unit 4 Microinstruction definition information group 5 Microinstruction specification description violation information 7 Microprogram source 8 Verification execution unit 9 Microinstruction specification restriction rule violation information 10 Microprogram source Description format violation information 401 Micro program source description format information 402 Micro instruction definition information 403 Restriction rule information 404 Special function information

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Junko Tanaka, 1 Horiyamashita, Hinoyamashita, Hadano, Kanagawa Prefecture (72) Ayumu Nakamura 1st, Horiyamashita, Hadano, Kanagawa (72) Inventor Noriko Kato 1 Horiyamashita, Hinoyamashita, Hadano, Kanagawa Pref., Japan Computer Electronics Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Shigeru Mori, 1 Horiyamashita, Hadano, Kanagawa Hitachi Computer Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yoshinori Morata 1 Horiyamashita, Hadano City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Hitachi Computer Engineering Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A microprogram verification method for statically verifying a restriction rule on a specification of a microprogram built into a computer system, wherein definition information of a microinstruction necessary for verification is described by a microinstruction specification description language specification. A microprogram verification method, which comprises automatically extracting from the microinstruction specifications of the verified microprogram to be verified, and performing verification based on the extracted definition information. 2. The microprogram verification according to claim 1, wherein the definition information is at least a field / function structure of a microinstruction, a description format of a microprogram source, and a restriction rule in use of the microinstruction. Method. 3. When extracting the usage restriction rule in the specification of microinstruction, the restriction rules which are described but agree with at least a plurality of functions are integrated,
3. Pointing out a restriction rule that causes a contradiction in the content of the restriction or a restriction rule regarding an undefined instruction.
The described microprogram verification method.